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The world, and Silicon Valley startup culture in particular, is filled to the brim with oblivious narcissists. You can pry my nagging self-doubt from my cold, d

The world, and Silicon Valley startup culture in particular, is filled to the brim with oblivious narcissists. You can pry my nagging self-doubt from my cold, dead fingers, thank you very much.

im3w1l 10y ago
Yeah some amount of self-doubt sounds healthy. Questions that come to mind: * Is there a healthy and an unhealthy kind of self doubt? * What's the appropriate amount?
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  You should doubt everything, completely, otherwise you will make poor assumptions based on incorrect axioms.
  - perlpimp 10y ago
    I would rather redefine don't make assumptions but don't doubt - just do to the best of your knowledge. Doubt takes you back , does not put you forward.
  - fenomas 10y ago
    Canonical answer: "Are you sure?"
  - taurath 10y ago
    Take the right things for granted, and don't take the wrong things for granted. If you doubt everything, I doubt you'd be able to maintain a diet or drive a car, or leave the house for that purpose. If you can't see the depths to which that can go, you're operating on the shallow end of doubt.
    - madaxe_again 10y ago
      I take some things for granted at times, but peel back what one would consider obvious and mundane to first principles routinely. It turns out little of the human world makes much sense, other than in the context of precedent. The physical world gets weirder yet, as this universe is, to the best of our knowledge and information currently available to us, tautological. I of course suspend my disbelief for day to day activities, otherwise as you say I would not function, but fundamentally, I believe nothing, not even that I or anything else exists. Descartes was overly glib, apparent thought is no evidence of being, as it requires self-reference.
      - projektir 10y ago
        Some of that may be true, but to affect the world, you nonetheless need to do things. And to do those things, you need to take something for granted, assume something, to complete the task. That set of things you're willing to take for granted is actually your relevant set of beliefs, because they inform your actions. That's where the important decisions are made, and this is the constant crisis of trying to figure out the right solution with nowhere near enough information. We can all, in theory, believe that we're wrong about most things, and this is most likely true. But, ultimately, there are things one is willing to do even if they could be wrong about them, because not doing anything is often worse. Sitting in constant doubt is effectively deciding not to participate.
      - harry_corn 10y ago
        Jesus. You are halfway between poetry and ostentatious drivel.
rybosome 10y ago
There's a difference between "is this the right thing to do?" and "oh God I'm a fucking failure and nobody has figured it out". The latter is quite pervasive, and it's a killer (sometimes non-figuratively).
cmrdporcupine 10y ago
North American culture has a tendency to redefine all criticism, external or internal, as 'negativity' -- to the point that, from my observation, organizations will a) fail without realizing it b) fail unnecessarily due to inability to deal with criticism c) define unrealistic goals on the assumption that "I think I can" will get them there. I think this is worse in California than other places, and infects Silicon Vally the worst. I think it leads to a 'shotgun approach' where if enough people "try try try" then yes some do succeed spectacularly while everyone else around them crashes and burns. But for people who just want to get things done properly, being on the hurtling train of "YES WE CAN" is frustrating. Growing up with an immigrant European (German) father, I have a hard time shutting off the critical voice, and it has led to lots of culture conflict for me within workplaces. I think there is definitely a distinction to be made within oneself between needless and mean negativity and critique, but I think the crucial point is that when the latter is repeatedly ignored, it leads to the former.
- scrupulusalbion 10y ago
  Are you sure that this is an America/California/Silicon-Valley feature? That your own internal critical voice arose as a result of growing up with your father (a German) seems to indicate that you got it from either having an immigrant parent, a German/European parent, or a parent who was just a negative nancy. I don't mean to be critical of you or your father; I mean to point out that the criticism=>negativity idea doesn't seem to be a strictly American thing. > I think it leads to a 'shotgun approach' where if enough people "try try try" then yes some do succeed spectacularly while everyone else around them crashes and burns. This reminds me of the Orks in Warhammer 40k, wherein the sheer psychic power of an Ork can make a war machine function; the machine would collapse if a non-Ork attempted to operate it. I think the negativity about / criticism of oneself and one's identity (e.g. the self-effacing comic) is unique to Western civilization. Do people outside the West (e.g. Africa, Middle East, Asia, and perhaps South America) view themselves as backwards for how their lives work? Plenty of people, whether on the right or left, are critical of Western policies, especially regarding military and economic campaign in non-Western countries. I am genuinely curious if people in non-Western countries see themselves as Westerners do (e.g. more bad than good).
dimino 10y ago
I have... zero self doubt. Any "I can't do this" anxiety I get is related to my lack of prep-time, not my concern for my aptitude. I believe I can accomplish anything, given some time and practice. Does this mean I'm an oblivious narcissist? I hadn't even considered the possibility...

The world, and Silicon Valley startup culture in particular, is filled to the brim with oblivious narcissists. You can pry my nagging self-doubt from my cold, dead fingers, thank you very much.

im3w1l 10y ago

Yeah some amount of self-doubt sounds healthy. Questions that come to mind: * Is there a healthy and an unhealthy kind of self doubt? * What's the appropriate amount?

madaxe_again 10y ago
You should doubt everything, completely, otherwise you will make poor assumptions based on incorrect axioms.
- perlpimp 10y ago
  I would rather redefine don't make assumptions but don't doubt - just do to the best of your knowledge. Doubt takes you back , does not put you forward.
- fenomas 10y ago
  Canonical answer: "Are you sure?"
- taurath 10y ago
  Take the right things for granted, and don't take the wrong things for granted. If you doubt everything, I doubt you'd be able to maintain a diet or drive a car, or leave the house for that purpose. If you can't see the depths to which that can go, you're operating on the shallow end of doubt.
  - madaxe_again 10y ago
    I take some things for granted at times, but peel back what one would consider obvious and mundane to first principles routinely. It turns out little of the human world makes much sense, other than in the context of precedent. The physical world gets weirder yet, as this universe is, to the best of our knowledge and information currently available to us, tautological. I of course suspend my disbelief for day to day activities, otherwise as you say I would not function, but fundamentally, I believe nothing, not even that I or anything else exists. Descartes was overly glib, apparent thought is no evidence of being, as it requires self-reference.
    - projektir 10y ago
      Some of that may be true, but to affect the world, you nonetheless need to do things. And to do those things, you need to take something for granted, assume something, to complete the task. That set of things you're willing to take for granted is actually your relevant set of beliefs, because they inform your actions. That's where the important decisions are made, and this is the constant crisis of trying to figure out the right solution with nowhere near enough information. We can all, in theory, believe that we're wrong about most things, and this is most likely true. But, ultimately, there are things one is willing to do even if they could be wrong about them, because not doing anything is often worse. Sitting in constant doubt is effectively deciding not to participate.
    - harry_corn 10y ago
      Jesus. You are halfway between poetry and ostentatious drivel.

rybosome 10y ago

There's a difference between "is this the right thing to do?" and "oh God I'm a fucking failure and nobody has figured it out". The latter is quite pervasive, and it's a killer (sometimes non-figuratively).

cmrdporcupine 10y ago

North American culture has a tendency to redefine all criticism, external or internal, as 'negativity' -- to the point that, from my observation, organizations will a) fail without realizing it b) fail unnecessarily due to inability to deal with criticism c) define unrealistic goals on the assumption that "I think I can" will get them there. I think this is worse in California than other places, and infects Silicon Vally the worst. I think it leads to a 'shotgun approach' where if enough people "try try try" then yes some do succeed spectacularly while everyone else around them crashes and burns. But for people who just want to get things done properly, being on the hurtling train of "YES WE CAN" is frustrating. Growing up with an immigrant European (German) father, I have a hard time shutting off the critical voice, and it has led to lots of culture conflict for me within workplaces. I think there is definitely a distinction to be made within oneself between needless and mean negativity and critique, but I think the crucial point is that when the latter is repeatedly ignored, it leads to the former.

scrupulusalbion 10y ago
Are you sure that this is an America/California/Silicon-Valley feature? That your own internal critical voice arose as a result of growing up with your father (a German) seems to indicate that you got it from either having an immigrant parent, a German/European parent, or a parent who was just a negative nancy. I don't mean to be critical of you or your father; I mean to point out that the criticism=>negativity idea doesn't seem to be a strictly American thing. > I think it leads to a 'shotgun approach' where if enough people "try try try" then yes some do succeed spectacularly while everyone else around them crashes and burns. This reminds me of the Orks in Warhammer 40k, wherein the sheer psychic power of an Ork can make a war machine function; the machine would collapse if a non-Ork attempted to operate it. I think the negativity about / criticism of oneself and one's identity (e.g. the self-effacing comic) is unique to Western civilization. Do people outside the West (e.g. Africa, Middle East, Asia, and perhaps South America) view themselves as backwards for how their lives work? Plenty of people, whether on the right or left, are critical of Western policies, especially regarding military and economic campaign in non-Western countries. I am genuinely curious if people in non-Western countries see themselves as Westerners do (e.g. more bad than good).

dimino 10y ago

I have... zero self doubt. Any "I can't do this" anxiety I get is related to my lack of prep-time, not my concern for my aptitude. I believe I can accomplish anything, given some time and practice. Does this mean I'm an oblivious narcissist? I hadn't even considered the possibility...